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Jessica Griggs

Have you ever tried any of these weird wood stains? Steve from Wood Working for Mere Mortals has a plethora of odd wood stains that are surprisingly effective! He starts out with blackberries on a wood slab and works his way through a list of other suggestions. I can’t believe how good some of the stains looked! Who would have guessed that used motor oil could bring out such details in the grain of wood?

Blackberries

This may be the oldest trick in the book when it comes to getting bright, vibrant colors from nature. For thousands of years, people have used blackberry juice to paint with, but here we see this colorful fruit used as a wood stain!

Ammonia

**WARNING** Don’t do this in an enclosed space! Or, if you have to, leave the space alone to air out. Don’t to this in the shop and then stick around and work on other things! This technique calls for “fuming” the wood with ammonia, so don’t submerge the wood, rather let it soak up the chemicals in a tight container.